FinanceCase 06

Setting Up International Business Infrastructure

Business Challenge

My international digital projects included paid contracts with foreign platforms, e-commerce sales on Amazon, and sales of digital products.

Working from Kazakhstan, I needed a legal and payment structure that could accept payments from abroad, pay contractors in several countries, and keep clear records for accounting and tax reporting.

My Role

I designed the entire structure and set it up myself, from company registration to day-to-day payment flows.

Approach

Registered a US company (LLC), obtained a tax ID (EIN), and set up correspondence with the IRS.
Opened a US business bank account as the company's main account.
Set up an online checkout platform to accept payments for digital products.
Opened a business account on a cross-border payout platform to receive payments from platforms and pay contractors, with a virtual card for infrastructure expenses.
Opened a seller account on the Amazon marketplace.
Separated the flows by tool: incoming platform payments, contractor payouts, and infrastructure costs each went through their own channel, so every flow could be seen on its own.
Built the structure before sales started, not after, and documented all access details and account information.
Paid contractors in Indonesia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, and Russia in local currencies with exchange-rate conversion; reconciliation of incoming payments and payouts, including delayed and failed payouts, was tracked in Excel-based systems (see Case 02).

Diagram: Map of money flows: incoming payments, the US company and bank account, and outgoing payouts, costs, and reporting. Each flow has its own tool. — Map of money flows: incoming payments, the US company and bank account, and outgoing payouts, costs, and reporting. Each flow has its own tool.

Outcome

The structure has been in use for several years: incoming payments from platforms and payouts to contractors in four countries go through it without a dedicated finance team.

Because each flow had its own tool, any payment could be traced quickly, and reconciliation stayed simple.